In a typical cellular communication system, also referred to as a wireless communications network, wireless terminals, also known as mobile stations and/or User Equipment units (UEs) communicate via Radio Access Networks (RAN) to a Core Network (CN). The wireless terminals may be mobile stations or user equipments such as mobile telephones also known as cellular telephones, laptops with wireless capability, and thus may be, for example, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-included, or car-mounted mobile devices which communicate voice and/or data with radio access network. The wireless terminals may also be communication devices or modules that are part of other electronic equipments such as video or photographic camera equipment, electronic photo frames, cardiac surveillance equipment, intrusion or other surveillance equipment, weather data monitoring systems, car or transport communication equipment, etc.
The radio access network is the network that is located between the wireless terminals, and the core network. RAN provides radio bearers between the core network and the wireless terminals for the transport of data and signaling, thus enabling wireless terminals to access services offered e.g. by Internet. The main RAN function includes establishment, maintenance, and termination of radio channels; radio resource management; and mobility management. The radio access network covers a geographical area which is divided into cell areas, with each cell area being served by a base station, e.g. a Radio Base Station (RBS), which in some radio access networks is also called evolved NodeB (eNB), NodeB, B node or base station. A cell is a geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the radio base station at a base station site. Each cell is identified by an identity within the local radio area, which is broadcast in the cell. The base stations communicate over the air interface operating on radio frequencies with the user equipments within range of the base stations.
In some versions of the radio access network, several base stations are typically connected, e.g. by landlines or microwave, to a Radio Network Controller (RNC), as in 3rd Generation (3G), i.e. Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA). The radio network controller supervises and coordinates various activities of the plural base stations connected thereto. In 2nd Generation (2G), i.e. Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), the base stations are connected to a Base Station Controller (BSC). The network controllers are typically connected to one or more core networks.
Machine-to-Machine (M2M) is a term referring to technologies that allow both wireless and wired systems to communicate with other devices of the same ability, for example computers, embedded processors, smart sensors, actuators and mobile devices may communicate with one another, take measurements and make decisions, often without human intervention
The Machine to Machine traffic, “M2M” traffic, is becoming increasingly common in wireless communication systems, such as GSM, WCDMA and Long Term Evolution (LTE). M2M traffic is, for example, used in such diverse applications as electricity meters, home alarms, signaling from vehicles, such as cars, trucks etc.
A problem in this context is that the number of users of wireless systems will grow greatly, which will create a need for avoiding congestion. For example if all electricity meters in an area attempt to report their readings to a central or collecting server at one and the same time, and that point in time happens to be at rush hour for other users, for example at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, there will be a problem with congestion and overload of the system. Congestion and overload affects all users of the system, both machines and human users.